1. Every Religion Is a Way of Life, and Its Life Is the Doing of Good

Everyone with any religion knows and acknowledges that someone who lives right is saved, and that someone who does not live right is damned. For he knows and acknowledges that someone who lives right, thinks right, not only about God, but also about the neighbor; but not so someone who does not live right.

A person’s life is his love, and what a person loves he not only freely does, but also freely thinks. We say therefore that his life is the doing of good, because doing right accompanies his thinking right. If these two do not go together, they do not constitute a person’s life.

But this we will show in the following pages.

9. No One Can of Himself Do Good That Is Good

No one has previously known whether the good he does originates from himself or from God, because the church has separated faith from charity, and goodness is an expression of charity. A person gives to the poor, donates to the needy, contributes to churches and shelters, looks out for the welfare of his church, country, and fellow citizens, regularly goes to church, devoutly listens then and prays, reads the Word and books of piety, and thinks about salvation; and this without knowing whether he does these things of himself or from God. He can do these very things from God, or he can do them of himself. If he does them from God, they are good. If he does them of himself, they are not good. In fact, we encounter goods of this kind, done by people of themselves, which are clearly evil, such as hypocritical goods, which are deceptive and fraudulent.